1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent MS66RD+ PCGS Secure Plus (Photo courtesy of PCGS)
Writing this, I'm coming off a week of dealing with PCGS customer service in the USPS mishandling of some of my best regraded coins. I say this for a reason. My trust factor with PCGS rose substantially because of superior service in tracking and finding my coins and getting them to me with regular updates.
The coins arrived, and I wrote thank-you notes. Moreover, I have found grading at PCGS to be fair and consistent, for the most part. So this column is written by a satisfied PCGS customer who feels secure sending in submissions.
But this new PCGS Secure Plus program makes me feel insecure because of a few oversights in its promotional strategy.
Before delving into the matter, you need to know about the new PCGS Secure Plus. You can read the company's promo here. You can view a series of videos here. (They're worth viewing, too.)
PCGS says its Secure Plus program is now designating "plus grades for coins that are in the high end of their grade. Plus grades will be designated for grades EF45 thru MS/PR68, with the exception of MS/PR60 and 61. We estimate that about 15 to 20% of the coins in a particular grade will be plus grade coins."
To potentially earn the PCGC Plus grades, you have to submit in these pricey categories: Ultra rarities, 2-5 days turnaround, $600 fee; rarities, $200,000 maximum value, 2-5 days turnaround, $250; Walkthrough (in house), $100,000 maximum value, 2 days turnaround, $125; Express, $20,000 maximum value, 5 days turnaround, $65; reholder, $20,000 maximum value, 10-12 days turnaround, $20. (There are show express, show and show gold fees, too.)
So as far as hobbyists like me are concerned, if I want to reholder a PCGS coin, I would need to pay a $20 fee per coin. So in general I won't qualify for Secure Plus because my bank account is minus these days. That also makes me feel insecure; but so do a few other features.
PCGS's new service takes a photographic fingerprint of coins to see if they have been submitted before to the company and possibly altered. PCGS Founder David Hall says his company is not in the business of grading coins 40 times for a dealer or collector to make the higher grade and claim a handsome price between the spread of two coin designations. I applaud that. I also applaud the anti-counterfeiting features incorporated in the new holder. (It's cool visually, by the way.)
There is one problem, though, in the theme of PCGS's new wonder machine that can track any coin no matter what a coin doctor does to it. The untold assumption is that PCGS is always right, and resubmissions are done because the collector is seeking a higher grade.
Well, I'm about to send in a coin that came back as "genuine" with a number indicating "artificial color" when there is no color whatsoever on the coin. I cracked it open and am resubmitting because PCGS made a mistake, and I know dealers and collectors who do the same because we get back mostly consistent but occasionally inexplicable grades. We resubmit, and a coin comes in with a grade we can live with because it is mostly accurate.
Grading is also subjective--to a degree. You don't expect artificial color designations on a coin with none. That's not subjective; that's a mistake. That said, PCGS is a top grader because it only occasionally makes a mistake. And here's the problem with the new promotion: You have to wait until 7:10 of the 8:10 part III video segment for a one-line acknowledgment that "matched coins (sic) grade will probably not change but there is a chance for reconsideration."
OK. A chance. But if you want to win hearts and holders, this is a serious flaw from both a promotional and technological vantage point, a topic about which I am qualified to speak as director of a journalism school and book author on technology. In the interest of disclosure, I'm a "technological determinist"--a fancy term for a person who believes technology controls us rather than the other way around. (Just view teens texting while driving, and you'll get my drift.)
Yes, coin doctors and registry-set obsessives may send in a coin 40 times for a higher grade. But hobbyists like me may purchase a raw coin at an auction that has been sent in previously to PCGS, only to have the computer think for the grader by providing a match and affirming a grade that actually requires re-consideration. An inherent by-product of PCGS's Secure Plus technology will be to affirm the occasional mistake because the computer's program says it is so.
That really makes me insecure because I want graders viewing computer matches to admit mistakes and use their new machine to provide even more consistent standards by acknowledging previous errors in judgment.
That would have been a BIG selling point for the BIG ONE (the slogan for yesterday's announcement).
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Apparently you did not correctly interpret the presentation Michael. David Hall clearly states that PCGS grades on a scale of 1 to 700 (not 1 to 70). A coin that receives a grade of 682 on the average of the grades assigned by the three graders, the final grade will be MS or PR68. If the average grade is 688 (high end 687, 688, 689) it will be MS or PR68+ designating that the coin scored in the high range for that grade for the average.
-Richard
Thanks for your comment. It is important in that PCGS needs to integrate its media message.
Yes, there is a complex portion of the video that discusses 1 to 700; but I didn’t quote from that. I quoted verbatim from PCGS as I am a Registry Set participant who received the following e-mail:
Dear PCGS Set Registry Member,
As part of the new PCGS Secure Plus service PCGS is now designated plus grades for coins that are in the high end of their grade. Plus grades will be designated for grades EF45 thru MS/PR68, with the exception of MS/PR60 and 61. We estimate that about 15 to 20% of the coins in a particular grade will be plus grade coins.
The new PCGS Secure Plus service also features laser coin identification. Complete details of the PCGS Secure Plus service are now posted on the PCGS home page http://www.pcgs.com.
The additional plus grade designation will change a lot of things. The PCGS Price Guide is now listing prices for the plus grade coins. The PCGS Population report will report Plus grade populations. As for the PCGS Set Registry, plus grades will now be accepted and recognized as “in-between” grades in terms of weighting. Coins receiving a plus grade will be calculated .5 points higher. In other words, if your coin grades 65+, it will calculate as 65.5 in the Registry.
In the words of PCGS founder David Hall, “It’s a marketplace reality that there are high end examples of various grades. Sophisticated collectors and dealers have recognized this for decades and high end coins have almost always traded at premium prices. Plus grading of high end coins mere formalizes this marketplace reality. For the Set Registry plus grading recognizes and rewards the nicest coins.”
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
BJ Searls
Set Registry Manager
Michael,
I understand your distaste of this situation in terms of the set registry as I am a participant as well. I agree that PCGS should offer this service at a discounted rate for those submitting coins already graded by PCGS in the regular PCGS holders.
This service is very important in maintaining the integrity of the numismatic industry. Personally, I cannot afford the coins of high end dealers and collectors. However, I do want the best possible service for my most prized coins. This is it. It offers innovative resources not previously available to adequately and accurately provide reliable population reports and provides information on coins that may have been altered, lost or stolen.
-Richard
Richard, I think we agree with each other on all points. My insecurity, however, is more associated with how PCGS decided to promote the new service. And it is missing an opportunity to enhance its own reputation by acknowledging that world-class graders, or the technicians who help distribute and holder the coins, make mistakes on occasion–errors in judgment or just plain errors. This new marvel of a machine that fingerprints its coin offers PCGS the unique opportunity to revisit its past grades and make adjusting them according to their grading sets–which the technology can do, by the way–more consistent. In other words, I think the new sevice would have attracted more business on the whole reality of regrades. They’re not sent in by coin doctors or Registry participants only; they’re sent in for a variety of reasons.
Look at it this way: World-class baseball players miss a fly ball on occasion; world-class writers get their facts wrong on occasion; world-class chess players can be check-mated. The irksome part of the presentation for me is the theme that PCGS graders are somehow perfect, and this machine will verify that perfection. It won’t.
Unless PCGS stops the hype and uses the machine correctly, all it will be is what the programmers want it to do: verify past submissions and claim they are correct against which future coins will be judged.
Michael,
I pose this scenario. PCGS currently uses a third grader only if the two original graders do not agree. Since submitters will be paying much more for this service, PCGS should get the opinions from five graders for each coin, average the grades, and consider this the ultimate final grade. This would ensure that the coins are graded by more of these grading experts to determine the overall final grade, negating any need to resubmit a particular coin. This should be the key factor in eliminating unnecessary regrading submissions and solidifying the final grade. However, if a coin is removed from the PCGS holder and re-submitted, the coin should complete this 5 person grading procedure again as the coin may have received damage or have been altered, in which it will be labeled as “GENUINE” and never be eligible for a numismatic numerical grade from PCGS. The grade of the coin, if eligible for grading would not be allowed a higher grade upon submission with this service as five graders have already evaluated the coin in the past and the condition will never improve.
-Richard
This is a brilliant system. It will work. Yes, it will cost more initially, but not over time; in fact, your system will be more effective and efficient.
Thank you for sharing it, Richard.
Michael,
One of the discussion participants on Coin Network supplied this link. This video should best describe how the secure system works. My only concern is that the system can indeed positively identify unique marks on coins that are not die polish marks that can be identical on higher grade new proof coins. Apparently, this system actually works and can positively identify a specific 2008 proof Silver American Eagle from a batch of 30 or more of the same coin. Perhaps, this will somewhat clarify the new secure scanning method PCGS will initiate with this PCGS Secure Plus Program.
http://www.coinsecure.com/demo.htm
-Richard